In today's environment of the atmosphere about the earth's surface, concerns have been and are being expressed about the kind and degree of pollutants or contaminants in the atmosphere, and what can or should be done to purify their resulting pollution or contaminates, or "polluted air", as it is commonly expressed, in the atmosphere. The sources of this pollution are found in industrial areas where waste gases are emitted from plants and factories into the air as well as from emissions by all kinds of vehicles (surface and air) and from industrial wastes in the atmosphere. In particular geographical areas, man-made pollutants, singly or in combination with the natural hazes or pollutants naturally arising about the earth's surface, aggravate the already known unhealthy regional atmospheric conditions. Under certain conditions, the condition is described as "smog". For example, the southern portion of the state of California, USA, "smog" inundates the area, formed from a combination of noxious gases of various sorts, an example of one being nitrous gases that are generated from the exhaust systems of vehicles on roadways, singly or in combination with other gases natural or industrially originated. In fact, the state of Californian requires catalytic converters at this point in time for all new passenger vehicles sold in the state, as an added effort to reduce the amount of pollution that would otherwise enter the air by reason of the vehicle's operation.
The earth's atmosphere indeed is daily being polluted from the burning of fossil fuels by industrial processes and by motor vehicles.
It has become clear that concepts in the past, and their implementations, have been directed to purifying air inside a vehicle or inside homes, offices or factories, either for immediate use or for purifying air contaminated by such implementations, and not in purifying the ambient air itself. In the first instance, the ambient air is purified prior to its introduction to or receipt within a vehicle's compartment or cab in which a driver or passenger is disposed, such as by providing filter devices mounted to the roadway vehicles and to and through which air would be gathered, filtered, and then discharged into the compartment or cab. Prior art teachings, such as U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,232,109; 4,408,911; 4,711,159; and 4,953,449, disclose concepts for purifying air that enters such compartments or cabs. Also, air conditioning devices mounted in the engine compartment of roadway vehicles are the modern day answer to an air-clean cab or compartment.
In the second instance, as an example, catalytic converters reduce the contamination of an exploded gaseous mixture so that one of its effects is to reintroduce into the ambient air some air that is less contaminated than otherwise.
What is of concern here is the good health of people, whether in a vehicle or merely somewhere in the atmosphere itself. To date, the health of people has been taken fairly into consideration while not unduly taking away their industriousness, by requiring emission restrictions on emitted gases generated by plants and factories, i.e., by man-made industriousness, and by requiring devices resulting from such industriousness, and by requiring devices resulting from such industriousness, they being applied to motor vehicles, particularly those with internal combustion engines.
Nevertheless, air pollution and its problems persist on planet earth. No apparatus or method to date has been recognized as a complete or final solution of any kind or to or of any degree for the health problem posed by noxious or deleterious gases in the atmosphere emanating from innumerable sources, some generally indicated above.
In this background, and within the context, though not limited thereto, of emissions from motor vehicles, the present invention was generated to reduce deleterious substances in our environment, the amount of such pollution, whether by vehicle or otherwise, and thereby increase advantageously the levels of health for human beings while providing a healthful environment in or about the natural surroundings on the earth's surface.